"Grabbed a some shots of a friend's feet healing after removing a few bone spurs. He said it comes with territory if you want the boot fit to compete at the top levels. Take pity on friends that have tight boots by being a lift boot bitch, popping open their buckles when they forgot before loading."
This net result does not come with the territory. It takes years of pounding your feet in boots that have not been properly modified to keep the shell off the common boney parts of the foot. The take away should not be to buy bigger boots that do not control the movement of the foot and lower leg. The take away should be to see a competent boot fitter that can make the boot as tight as it needs to be for performance while respecting the parts of your feet that will make contact with the shell because it is too big in the area that holds the foot down and back, while at the same time making "pockets" for the boney parts of your feet to be protected in. And just my opinion, but doing any shell work without a properly built footbed also defeats the purpose of achieving control and comfort for the life of the boot fit.
This type of surgery could be eliminated with proper boot fitting... Unless you are the type that prefers to close the barn door after the horses have all escaped.
For your future foot happiness invest in preventative foot medical care, (like a boot fitter that understands your goal of painless performance) versus hacking and sawing away calcium deposits and bone growth on your feet. Did your friend mention how much pain the surgeries were, as well as how long the rehab was due to the fact that blood flow to the feet prevents the bones from healing as quick as a broken arm. Did he ask what kind of supercar the podiatrist drove? Good work if you can get it...
The subject of this thread is about Plug boots for everyday use. It is worth pointing out that when you actually measure or scan an average foot, the overall size and girth dimensions will be closer to the shaping of a plug boot than most of the 100,102,104, and adjustable heat moldable shells out there. ( I know, bold statement, right?) The pain in plugs come from the boney bits at the first metatarsal head, the fifth metatarsal head, the Styloid Process, the Navicular, back of the calcaneous, inside and outside ankle bones, and the instep bump. With plug boots, the focus has to be on the grip in all the places not previously mentioned above, then check the contact points for the above to see if the is a grind or a punch necessary to build in relief in those spots.
The inverse is what usually takes place in most ski shops. And that is going to the largest or widest part of the foot and picking a boot on how its will fit that abnormality. In doing so, you will take a perfectly normal rear foot and instep and have have it un-contained by putting the customer in a boot that feels comfortable to the forefoot width while standing on a flat surface in a ski shop. The funny thing about that common scenario is that by having excessive movement in a more voluminous boot, the boney bits of your feet will still find the shell wall and cause bone spurs in a boot that is too big! In store education and communication is key to suss this out.
Way better in the long run to get a very close match to the overall foot shape and volume, then accommodate the pain parts with a punch or a grind... Which is just like my opinion man... At Starthaus we sell 300 hundred pair of low volume, plug style boots per season to recreational skiers as well as jr racers, and masters racers. In addition our most common boot forefoot dimension sold are the 97/98 models. 3/4's of all of our boots sold are in those two forefoot dimensions. The rest are 100mm's. We sell so few 102/104's you could count them on one fitters fingers and toes... The OP's story is the exception not the rule. The reason being the width of his forefoot is gigantor for a plug boot. But that said with a good fitter and excellent tooling success is achievable.
Fear the plug, if you think that you can just put one on out of the box and rip around. Don't fear the plug with a good fitter and a shop to back you up as liners break in and down.